Congressman Joe Baca (D-Rialto, CA.) is taking another stab at forcing video games to carry health warnings, reports GamePolitics. The Congressman previously tried to pass such legislation in 2003 and again in 2009, calling his new bill "The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2011." Word is this would call for any game rated teen or higher to carry the following: "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior."

anyone see the irony in a having a country where just about any firearm is "your right" but shooting anyone is illegal

anyway whatever - we all die DEC 2012....

_________________________________________________"Money doesn't exist in the 24th century, the acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity." - Jean-Luc Picard

Creston wrote on Jan 25, 2011, 23:20:"Warning: excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to exactly shit, but since I'm grandstanding on an issue I normally don't give a flying fuck about, I'm going to pretend it aborts children, murders kittens and rapes your spouses!"

Well, it says "...and other violent media...", so I'd have no problem with this being displayed on games as long as it was also tagged on every violent movie, TV show, book, etc. No one would pay a lick of attention to it anyway.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

It's a scientific fact that excessive exposure to anything violent causes chemical changes in the brain that lead to increased aggression and violence. The SS forced their soldiers to watch a form of "torture porn" to desensitize them to violence and program their minds to commit the atrocities they did without feeling or remorse.

They should probably post the same warnings on sports. More so since playing sports can lead to actual physical injures or death.For the sake of consistency of course, not that I have anything against playing sports.Except for stupid boring rugby.

"Warning: excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to exactly shit, but since I'm grandstanding on an issue I normally don't give a flying fuck about, I'm going to pretend it aborts children, murders kittens and rapes your spouses!"

I think he needs to re-read the studies he's quoting. The Michigan State study, for example, only talks about the link between brain patterns and violent games; it doesn't provide any evidence that the games actually cause any outward behavioral aggression.

The researcher also said this: "“Although there are probably more positive effects of playing all types of video games and even violent video games, such as socializing with peers or improving cognitive and physical abilities, it is important that we continue to explore this causal relationship we have shown in this research.”

Way to not let the facts get in the way of your argument, Congressman.

Draugr wrote on Jan 25, 2011, 21:22:edit: I think there is something to be said about things like prevalence of violence in media today and violent crimes among youth, which shows the opposite correlation of what people like this politician assert.

Violent crime has fallen every year for many, many years now. Plus humanity has been amazingly violent since it was thrown into this world, I doubt Hitler played Call of Duty.

Yup, that's pretty much what I was saying, heh.Now granted, Correlation is not causation, but this is why I think more research is worth conducting. Nothing wrong with being right for the right reasons, hehe

Draugr wrote on Jan 25, 2011, 21:22:edit: I think there is something to be said about things like prevalence of violence in media today and violent crimes among youth, which shows the opposite correlation of what people like this politician assert.

Violent crime has fallen every year for many, many years now. Plus humanity has been amazingly violent since it was thrown into this world, I doubt Hitler played Call of Duty.

I think it's petty. There are no conclusive studies linking video games to violent bahavior. There *are* plenty of studies linking bad parenting, poor environment and peer influences to further bad behavior and/or violence.

I think that we should place labels on all politicians saying "WARNING: Excessive exposure to political idiocy has been linked to aggressive behavior".